U.S. tanks shelled a mosque in the Sunni insurgent stronghold of Ramadi on Friday after coming under rocket-propelled grenade and machinegun fire from the building, the U.S. military said. A doctor at Ramadi hospital told Reuters three people had been killed and 22 wounded by the U.S. fire, which the U.S. military said was provoked by a "complex attack" that also included hand grenades and improvised explosives. "Coalition forces returned fire in self defense, using escalation of force procedures, and finally fired several main gun rounds from M1 tanks into the mosque in order to defeat the attackers," the military said in a statement. The mosque suffered serious structural damage to the dome and minaret, it said, adding that one soldier had been slightly hurt in the attack. U.S. forces generally refrain from damaging religious buildings but say they will attack them if fired upon. They accuse militants from both Sunni and Shi'ite factions of using mosques for military purposes... http://abcnews.go.com

Venice is on course to become a city virtually without residents within the next 30 years, turning it into a sort of Disneyland - teeming with holidaymakers but devoid of inhabitants. Depopulation is getting to the point of no return, the Venice council housing chief, Mara Rumiz, said following the publication this week of the latest figures. "Beyond then, Venice will never again be a normal city, but will become a mere tourist destination and lose its charm - even for the tourists themselves," she was quoted as telling the daily La Repubblica today. The register of residents, tallied every 10 years, shows that the population of Venice proper has almost halved - from 121,000 to 62,000 - since the great flood of 1966. A city that once ruled an empire now has a smaller population than Herne Bay and, if it continues to lose full-time inhabitants at the same rate, it will be "empty" by around 2046...http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,,1858624,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12

Deadly storms swept across the northern Plains, bringing tornadoes that ripped roofs off houses and hail that smashed car windshields. In Missouri, most of the Jefferson City area lost power for about two hours as the storms continued Friday.A day earlier, a man died after a tornado hit his home in Minnesota, while in Wisconsin, lightning apparently struck a woman as she left a supermarket. Hundreds of cows were killed or were on the loose. Twisters, heavy rain and hail as big as grapefruit also struck the Dakotas, stripping trees of their leaves, and power was knocked out around the region.Also Thursday, a flash flood in New Mexico killed a man and a boy driving on a tribal road in New Mexico....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,210413,00.html

Washington says the Venezuelan authorities have illegally seized and searched a diplomatic bag destined for the US embassy in Caracas. The Venezuelan authorities say they were looking for military hardware being flown in illegally from the US. But an embassy spokesman said this was nonsense and a serious violation of international rules. The US state department has made a formal complaint to the government, demanding the bag be returned to them. Venezuela's foreign ministry told the BBC that a piece of luggage belonging to the US naval attache had been seized but they stressed it was not, as it were, an official diplomatic bag. A ministry official said they were alerted to three lorries leaving the airport compound without reporting to customs as required by law. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5284260.stm

The country's leadership promised a clear victory and a destruction of Hezbollah. But that didn't happen. Now, criticism of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government is getting louder. And Israelis are wondering what the future holds. A few days after the outbreak of hostilities -- when the Israeli military operation against Hezbollah, codenamed "Fitting Retribution," was still in the aerial strikes stage -- a new song was born. A group of young musicians were commissioned by a morning news show to write a funny, frivolous piece of pop -- a sort of anthem that would both unite people and make them laugh. A group called "Frishman and the Pioneers" came up with "Yalla Ya Nasrallah," a war song full of Hebrew and Arabic slang and slurs aimed at the leader of Hezbollah. The song's chorus goes like this: "Yalla, ya Nasrallah, we'll screw you, Inshallahand send you back to Allah with all your Hezbollah" The piece was dripping with parody and cynicism -- ...http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,433540,00.html

A Chinese researcher for the New York Times has been acquitted of leaking state secrets, but sentenced to three years in jail for fraud. A Beijing court decided there was insufficient evidence to convict Zhao Yan of illegally providing foreigners with state information. While Mr Zhao's lawyers welcomed the acquittal, they said their client was likely to appeal the fraud conviction. Analysts say this case has caused tensions between China and the US. Washington has repeatedly calling on Beijing to release Mr Zhao. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5284304.stm